Dakar Rally

South African pair remain in the lead of 2025 Dakar Rally

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epa11811551 Toyota Gazoo Racing driver Henk Lategan of South Africa and co-driver Brett Cummings of South Africa in action during the third stage of the 2025 Dakar Rally, from Bisha to Al Henakiyah, Saudi Arabia, 07 January 2025. EPA/Gerard Laurenssen

The fourth stage of the 2025 Dakar Rally caused multiple upsets among the top competitors, with punctures largely dictating the outcome of the Marathon Stage. TOYOTA GAZOO Racing’s Henk Lategan and Brett Cummings set the second-fastest time on the rocky stage despite also suffering two punctures.

They retain their overall lead in the rally, and are now 6min 54sec ahead of Yazeed Al Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk (Toyota Hilux) in second place.

The next-fastest GR Hilux EVO crew was Lucas Moraes and Armand Monleon. The duo lost 18min 36sec to the stage winners after suffering three punctures. With the Hilux carrying only two spares, they had to wait for assistance from a fellow competitor. They remain in 5th place overall, with their deficit to the leaders now 33min 25sec.

Giniel de Villiers and Dirk von Zitzewitz finished just 1min 16sec behind Moraes/Monleon, despite having only one puncture on the stage. The South African driver managed his pace over the stage to preserve his tyres, recording the 11th-best time of the day. This has moved him up to 21st place in the overall rankings, though he is still 2hr 33min 27sec behind the lead.

For the rest of the TGR crews, the Marathon Stage brought tyre woes. Saood Variawa/Francois Cazalet and Guy Botterill/Dennis Murphy each suffered two punctures, forcing them to moderate their pace to the finish. Seth Quintero and Dennis Zenz had one more, forcing them to wait for assistance from a fellow competitor. They had a long wait, losing 1hr 51sec as a result. This has dropped the Californian down to 12th overall, 1hr 31min 04sec behind the lead.

The Marathon Stage was run between the towns of Bisha and Alula, with competitors taking on a tough stage of 415km, excluding liaisons of 173km.

They will rejoin the main bivouac at Hail on Thursday via Stage 5, having had to service and repair their own cars at the overnight stop. Stage 5 will feature 428km of special stage, with a short liaison of 64km.

Stage 5 will be followed by the much-needed Rest Day in Hail, when the technical crews will strip, repair and rebuild the race cars in preparation for the second week of the rally. This year’s event will draw to a close on 17 January, in Saudi Arabia’s fearsome Empty Quarter.

QUOTES:
Henk Lategan: “The first 90km were really tricky, with a lot of rocks. We had to be really careful to avoid punctures. After that, the track became smoother, and we could push. I had a blast behind the wheel today… In the end, though, we had to ease off a bit because we had two punctures.”

Giniel de Villiers: “All good, not too bad a day until we had a puncture and then we discovered that the nut gun didn’t have a battery on it. So, it took us almost 10 minutes to change the tyre. We lost a lot of time, then we had dust, as a lot of guys passed us. But yeah, all in all a very tough stage, lots of rocks. I was really driving carefully in the beginning to not get punctures.”